It’s not every day that you hear New Yorkers complaining about the absence of a Starbucks or a Duane Reade, but the chains that are so often maligned in Manhattan lately are just the type of convenience that people working in Long Island City miss the most.

When Deborah, a Citigroup employee, learned that she was being transferred from Manhattan to Long Island City 10 years ago, she was less than enthusiastic about the move.

“When I first heard I thought, 'Ugh, Long Island City,' because I’d never heard about it,” said during a mid-Monday morning smoke break outside the neighborhood’s first high-rise, high-profile office building, Court Square One.  read more »